Disney World Trip Day 5 - Hollywood Studios

Wednesday was our final day in the parks and it was spent in Hollywood Studios.  I wasn’t sure how this day would go since Hollywood Studios is more traditionally geared toward adults.  However, our kids ended up loving it just as much as the other parks because there was plenty for them to do and lots of characters for them to meet.  Jacob is a huge Star Wars fan, and there was Star Wars stuff everywhere in the park, so he was pretty much in heaven the whole day.

There are way fewer rides in Hollywood Studios than the other parks, so we didn’t ride near as much stuff on this day, but there was plenty to see and do to keep us busy for eleven solid hours.  Whew. 

We started the day the same way as all the others with breakfast in line while we waited to get in, and then the second we got in the park, B ran to ride Tower of Tower.  That was a must-ride for him, but we knew that we could never take the kids on it, so he ran to ride that one early before the line got too backed up.  That ride stays busy all day, so the wait was already 20-30 minutes when he arrived.  The kids and I used that time to walk around, sight-see, and apply sunscreen. 

B loved Tower of Terror and he said that it even scared him a little (and he’s never scared of anything), so we were glad that we didn’t take the kids!  I was also glad that I didn’t go myself.  ;o)

After the ride was over, we walked around for a bit, and we stopped to watch an army of Stormtroopers parade up the road.  Jacob is a huge fan (he was a Stormtrooper for Halloween the year before last) so he was right there in his element.

Once the parade went by, I took a picture by the Hollywood Studios sign and we also stopped in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theater for some fun family pictures.

We also stopped in front of the Hollywood Studios sign for some pictures as well.

After that, we headed toward one of the Star Wars buildings to go meet some Star Wars characters.  Jacob wanted to meet Kylo Ren really bad, so we waited the 20 or so minutes to meet him.  He was so creepy and tall that Olivia wouldn’t get anywhere near him, hence the reason she’s absent from the pictures!

The line for BB-8 was nearby, so we jumped in that one next.  I think we waited for 15-20 minutes there as well, and it was worth the wait because he was SO CUTE!!  The kids loved him!  The whole time we were in there, BB-8’s handlers were talking to Jacob and Olivia and asking them questions about Star Wars and they had no clue what to say because they’ve never even seen the movies.  And I didn’t know what to say to prompt them because I haven’t either.  Haha.  We had to let B handle it!

After meeting BB-8 we walked around for a bit to get an idea where everything was in the park, we took in a little bit of the Jedi Training: Trials of the Temple show, and then we decided to go ahead and eat an early lunch since all of our fast passes were in the afternoon. 

Our travel agent had recommended Backlot Express because they have drink machines where we could refill our cups, so we headed on over there.  B and I both ordered burgers and Galactic Lemonades (Tito's Vodka, Guava, and odwalla Lemonade), Jacob ordered chicken and waffles (Darth Vader waffles – so cute!), and Olivia had another “pocket peanut and jelly” (Smuckers Uncrustable).

We took a load off for a while, enjoyed our lunch, refilled our drink cups, and then headed straight over for our first fast pass of the day at Toy Story Midway Mania!  This ride was another interactive ride where you get to shoot targets, and for this ride you also get 3D glasses so everything jumps out at you.  It was so much fun!  I got another high score (even though B beat me this time) so I had to take a picture.  ;o)  The score next to mine was Olivia’s.  Haha.

When that ride was over we had a little bit of time to kill before our second fast pass, so we went back over to this Star Wars vehicle to take pictures.  Jacob had seen it earlier in the day and wanted to hop on, so we did!

Our next fast pass was for For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration so we headed toward the theater next.  That show is about 30 minutes long so we did have to wait a good 20-25 minutes even with the fast pass, but the waiting area was in the shade (praise!) so the kids were able to sit and cool off for a bit.  Our day at Hollywood Studios was definitely the hottest day there with a high around 80, but there’s not very much shade in that park and there were zero clouds that day, so it felt even hotter than that.

The Frozen sing-along was absolutely fantastic, you guys.  Just fantastic!  There is a little bit of acting and narrating, and all of the best songs from the movie are played while they show the actual clips from the movie, and then it ends with Elsa coming out on the stage and singing Let it Go.  During the Let it Go portion it started snowing in the theater and all of the kids just went crazy.  They didn’t even know what to do.  It was pure magic.  Olivia proclaimed it was her favorite ride of the entire trip, and it was definitely one of my favorites as well.  It is a must-see if you have small kids.  We are DYING for the Frozen movie sequel in 2019!!

Since we were all on a Frozen high after the show, we decided to continue it by meeting Olaf next!  The line had been at least 45 minutes long all morning, but since the show had just let out, the wait was only 15 minutes by the time we reached it.  Olaf was right at home in a cute little beach setting, and we all enjoyed meeting him.

By the time we got out of there, it was mid-afternoon and everyone was getting hungry.  We still had a ton of snack credits left, so we stopped and grabbed one last round of Mickey ice cream sandwiches and other treats, and it was just what we needed to combat the Florida heat.  

The view while we ate: <3

Our last fast pass of the day was for Star Tours – The Adventure Continues so we headed there next.  We had to wait about 15 minutes before getting on, and then it was show time.  I have to say that this was my least favorite ride of the trip.  Starting out, they stick you in a tiny little box of a room and close the doors which immediately made me start feeling claustrophobic.  You are placed in front of a big screen which makes you look like you’re flying through a whole bunch of battle scenes in the movie and the whole room moves to make you feel like you’re in the ride as well.  I do not get motion sickness easily, but about 30 seconds into this ride I started feeling nauseated which made me panic a little.  Olivia was also terrified so she had started full-on crying at that point, so I leaned over and tried to comfort her as best I could.  Fortunately the ride is only a few minutes long, so we were off before we knew it.  I felt fine almost immediately after exiting and Olivia recovered quickly as well, so it ended up being no big deal!  I don’t think I’ll be wanting to ride that one again the next time we go, though.

When we got off the ride, Brian told me that at the beginning of the ride they said that there was a spy on board, and the spy ended up being Jacob (they put his picture up on the screen apparently), but I had somehow missed all of that.  Probably because I was concentrating on not throwing up.  Haha.

Brian and Jacob loved the ride, so it was half of a success!

Next, we headed over to the Disney Jr. section of Hollywood Studios because they had an outdoor area with four different characters to meet.  We took Olivia to meet Sofia first since she had just had to endure the horrors of the Star Tours ride because we wanted something happy to take her mind off of it.  I think she was more excited to meet Sofia than any other princess.  So strange!  When it was their turn to walk up to her, Olivia immediately asked where her castle was.  That's exactly what she's saying in that first picture.  

We even got a real smile out of her this time!

Following Sofia, we got to meet Jake from Jake and the Never Land Pirates, and then we met Pluto after that.  Somehow all of the lines were really short for those characters (they had been super long earlier in the day) and we waited no longer than 5-10 minutes for each. 

Since all of those characters were outside, we were pretty hot at that point and wanted to find some air conditioning so we headed back into the Star Wars building to meet Chewbacca.  The line had been so long all morning, but miraculously the line had gotten down to about a 20 minute wait.  I am not a Star Wars fan, but I have to admit, the Chewy character was the COOLEST.  He looked and sounded just like the character in the movie and whoever was wearing the costume must’ve had a button they could push to make the Chewy noises to “communicate” with us.  Brian was talking to him and asking him questions and he was answering in his traditional Chewbacca noises, but it sounded like he was responding appropriately.  It was so neat!

We did a little bit of shopping after meeting Chewbacca.  We had told Jacob he could pick out something from the Star Wars store, so he grabbed a model to put together back at home.  Olivia wanted a Tinker Bell doll, so we looked around for one of those after that, but had no luck, and then it was time to head to Sci-Fi Drive-In Theater for our dinner reservation. 

Y’all, this place is SO COOL.  It is in a huge building, but it is set up to look like an old drive-in theater outdoors at night.  There is a night sky full of stars, a huge movie screen showing old black and white sci-fi movies, and the tables are inside old 50s and 60s convertible cars.  They basically cut out the dashboards, put a table across the front, and put a table across the back seats as well.  We let the kids sit in the front seats and B and I sat behind them so we could watch them. 

Since we had burgers for lunch we wanted something a little more substantial for dinner, so B and I both ended up ordering the Chicken Pasta in four-cheese sauce topped with asparagus and other vegetables.  Again, I didn’t have high hopes for the food, but it was delicious once again!

All of our table service meals included dessert, so all of us picked desserts next.  Of all of the restaurants, Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater had the largest and best selection to choose from, and B and I both had a really hard time deciding what to get.  The kids both opted for Hot Fudge Sundaes, and B and I ended up ordering something different so we could share and have the best of two worlds.  I went with the Warm Glazed Doughnut with Cinnamon Apples, Vanilla Bean Ice Cream, and Caramel Sauce and B went with the House-made Sci-Fi Candy Bar.  It was white and dark chocolate mousse layered with crispy pearls (those magical things that are on all of the Disney desserts!  Seriously, where can I get some?!), sandwiched between sponge cake and dipped in chocolate ganache.

Y’all.

We ate every single last bite of both desserts.  They were both incredible. 

The verdict – I was completely torn, but ended up leaning toward liking the the Candy Bar the most, and Brian ended up leaning toward the Warm Glazed Doughnut dessert.

All in all it was just the coolest experience, eating at this place!  I highly recommend it if you ever plan a trip!

After dinner, we headed back out into the Florida sunshine (so strange after just feeling like we were sitting outside under the stars at night for the last hour) and then B decided to head to the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster featuring Aerosmith.  Neither of the kids were even tall enough to ride that one (since it goes upside down) so I stayed with them while B went off in pursuit of a single-rider line.  I was totally okay skipping this one since I had just eaten so much… the thought of flipping around at 55 mph did not sound appealing after having just stuffed my face.  Lol.

The wait time for B ended up being over an hour so the kids and I had a lot of time to kill.  We ended up catching the end of the Star Wars Show in front of Grauman’s first, and then we set out to find a Tinker Bell doll for Olivia.  After a couple of stops at little stores, we couldn’t find what we were looking for, so I approached a Disney cast member at the second store and told him what Olivia was requesting.  He was able to pull up on his iPad exactly what she wanted (a Tinker Bell doll that was similar to a Barbie) and tell us exactly where to go to buy it.  DISNEY, Y’ALL!!!!

Sure enough, we walked right in to the store that he had suggested, and there she was!  Olivia was ecstatic! 

That same store had all kinds of souvenirs and snacks, and at that point we had a bunch of Disney snack credits left over, so we decided to go ahead and cash a bunch of them in on stuff that we could take back home.

Side note – if you are going to Disney and you get the meal plan that includes snacks, DO NOT LET YOUR SNACKS GO TO WASTE!!!!  If you don’t use them all (and you probably won’t) you can go to any Disney park, resort, or store and redeem all of your snack credits for stuff in the stores that qualify as snacks!

We had 19 snack credits left at that point so we grabbed tons of treats to take home – cotton candy, gigantic lollipops, frosting-covered Rice Krispy treats, gummies, sour candies, and PEZ – (YUCK!).  In fact, we’re still working our way through all of it today!  We ended up getting 12 things at that point, so we still had seven credits left to use for other goodies later. 

The kids were dying to try the cotton candy, and even though they had both just had hot fudge sundaes I said SURE, because – DISNEY WORLD!!!!

B came back shortly after that and told us all about the roller coaster (he loved it), and then we decided to go ahead and call it a day.  The sun was on its way down, and we had another early morning the next day for our character breakfast, so we all looked around one last time and said farewell to our last Disney park for this trip.

Now for the day’s summary and schedule:

Summary:

Hours spent in park – 11 (9 AM – 8 PM)

Rides – 5

Characters met – 7

Disney Photo Pass pictures and videos taken – 77

Schedule:

Arrive 9 AM

Tower of Terror (Brian)

Met Kylo Ren (everyone)

Met BB-8 (everyone)

Lunch – Backlot Express (everyone)

Fast Pass – Toy Story Midway Mania! (everyone)

Fast Pass – For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration (everyone)

Met Olaf (everyone)

Snacks (everyone)

Fast Pass – Star Tours – The Adventures Continue (everyone)

Met Sofia (everyone)

Met Jake from Jake and the Never Land Pirates (everyone)

Met Pluto (everyone)

Met Chewbacca (everyone)

Dinner – Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater (everyone)

Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith (Brian)

Left park 10 PM

I do have one last recap to do for our Disney trip – a character breakfast and my pursuit for a Dole Whip!  ;o)  That’ll be up next week! 

And if you missed any of my other recaps, you can see them below! 

By the Numbers

Disney Springs

Animal Kingdom
Epcot
Magic Kingdom